Syracuse, N.Y. — Austin Wilson's advantage in the Syracuse backup quarterback competition is his arm strength. He's improved his positioning by putting that skill on the shelf.

Syracuse quarterback coach Tim Lester said on Wednesday that Wilson is currently playing the best of SU's three backup options, evening a competition with true freshman A.J. Long for the spot.

Wilson, a 6-foot-3, 214-pound redshirt freshman, has gotten there by changing the approach most quarterbacks carry since high school, accepting the need to use check-down options and backup routes.

"Coming out of high school, I did come out and throw the ball deep a lot," Wilson said. "That's one thing I've worked on, to take the check-downs and things like that. I've learned to play within the system and not get greedy, take what the defense gives you and be a good leader."

It's a common habit developed at lesser levels of football where defensive backs are players to be picked on and safeties are often committed to stopping the run.

Wilson said the biggest step in his learning process came from meetings where he was required by quarterback coach Tim Lester to not only watch his mistakes, but explain his decision-making.

While Syracuse has talked repeatedly about the need to develop a down-field passing game, the importance of decision-making and gaining yardage reliably in small chunks can't be overstated.

Last year, Drew Allen, like Wilson, owned the big arm and the desire to connect on big plays, while Terrel Hunt routinely opted for shorter passes, a habit that Long, the other candidate for backup quarterback, has fallen into.

Allen threw interceptions on 7.4 percent of his passes, while Hunt turned the ball over on 2.9 percent of his throws, emerging as the quarterback of the future and allowing the Orange to win with defense and by wearing opponents out over the course of a game.

Lester has said that he expects Wilson and Long, who just got over a short absence due to arm soreness, to split practice time evenly over the next couple of days, giving him an idea of who the backup will be entering the season. Wilson said practice time has been "pretty even."

If he's called on at any point in the Villanova game, Wilson believes he's ready.

"For sure, I think I'm more than ready right now," Wilson said. "It's what I've been preparing for all summer."

Long was not available for comment because Syracuse did not make true freshmen available to the media Wednesday.

Quarterback Mitch Kimble said it appeared to him as if Wilson received the majority of practice repetitions as the backup on Wednesday. As the fourth member of the quarterback competition, Kimble ran the scout team full-time, an indication he lags behind.

When asked if he believed that officially ruled him out of the competition for backup quarterback this season, Kimble took a deep breath, a long pause and looked at the ceiling before answering that he hoped he still had a chance.

"I'm not for sure about that," Kimble said. "With being on the scout team going against the first team there's nothing I control. It's just keep going out and playing hard, playing ball and improving. They're easy fixes, but in the big picture they're big things. I know I have the potential to be the second guy."

While head coach Scott Shafer has repeatedly used an anecdote about a season at Western Michigan in which he needed five quarterbacks, Kimble knows the odds are stacked against moving up the depth chart while spending each week learning an opposing offense instead of his own.

His weaknesses, however, give him hope.

Kimble has a solid understanding of the offense but said his issue in previous practices has been holding the ball too long and failing to recognize blitzes, something he hopes he'll be able to improve with regular playing time against the first-string defense.

"For me it's mostly scout team," Kimble said. "Austin got most of the second team reps from what I saw. Going against the first team, you've got to get the ball out quick. I can learn to read the defense better, knowing when guys are coming. I can look at similar plays that Villanova runs and go through the reads how we do them. It's just getting better and getting the ball out quick."